City gets 2 free years in lease deal

The weak downtown office market is getting what is likely to be one of its biggest leases of the year: a 12-year, multimillion-dollar pact between City Hall and Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust.

Under a deal announced Friday, the city will continue to lease 300,000 square feet of space at Equity-owned 30 N. LaSalle St. for the next 12 years. But the first two years will come rent-free. Thereafter, starting in 2005, the city will pay rent of about $7.1 million a year.

Dozens of firms had been competing to get the deal, but, as Budget Director William Abolt put it, "As hungry as people are to attract new tenants, they're hungrier to lock in their existing tenants."

The city expects to seek bidders later this year to provide about 100,000 square feet of additional space that may be consolidated from existing locations.